Welcome to the world's largest online community of tomato growers! If this is your first visit, please take a few moments and register to become a member of our community and have full access to all of our forums. (some are exclusive to members only) For more details about how to register, please click here.

Arugula? I just became a fan!!! Raving about arugula salad for a few days now. Your post is so timely. I definitely must grow some. So far, I prepare it with steamed baby beets, roasted pine nuts, and whatever crumbled cheese I have on hand. Please suggest how else to prepare it!

It's true, I could use the time off, and spend time with my son (summer break). He enjoys keeping me company in the garden.

Have a great weekend EVERYONE!

__________________Moonglow GardensSustainable Gardening One Planter at a Time
Sunset Zone 17 Apparently - - - Without the fog!

Gave away a flat of tomatoes (and 4 flats of other plants), and got 3 more tomato plants at a local plant exchange today. Jaune Flamme, because I want to see how it compares to the (mislabeled) small orange one that did so well for me last year. Cuor di Bue, because it's an oxheart and because the plant looked so pitiful, falling out of its container of dry soil. Depp's Pink Firefly, because of the name and because it was so small and dry and looked like it wasn't going to make it.

Twenty in the ground, ten more to go!

At 7 weeks after planting, I found a Purple Haze F3 had finally germinated a couple days ago, and a Kosovo germinated today!

Hi Everybody! Great seeing many of you at the Wild Boar last August!It's me, Simcha AKA Chai here from Davis.Got almost all my tomatoes in but having some problems.Might be a magnesium deficiency have brown/white spots on the leaves and even some holes in the leaves.Hoping it's magnesium deficiency and not blight.Some have it, some don't I am hoping the ones that have it are simply the ones I forgot to sprinkle epsom salts into the hole before I planted the seedling.We'll see. Makes me kinda sad.I grew everything from seed and gave away alot of seedlings, got a few more people to garden this year too, so that's good.Let's see I'll think of my list off the top of my head-Oaxacan Jewel, Marvel Stripe, Beauty King, Berkeley Tie Dye, Pineapple, Ananas Noire, Green Pineapple, Amana Orange, Plum Tigris, Julia Child, Charlie's Green, Carol Chyko's Paste, Moonglow, Ferris Wheel,Flamme, Purple Russian, orange Russian, Gary Ibsen's Gold,Zapotec Pleated, the list goes on...Hope I don't lose them all I will be disappointed.Hoping more epsom salts and maybe Tiger Bloom will make the seedlings happier.I didn't buy any new seeds this year due to the economy, but let's face it, I didn't need any!For those of you facing lay offs I will keep you in my prayers.Gardening is a great stress reliever! Let's see I planted squash and cucumbers and a few eggplants.The cukes are doing great! I planted all sorts and a few died and I replaced them and now they are growing happily.Summerdance, Middle east Proliffic, Richmond Green Apple, Poona Kheera,Sweet Slice, Diva, Amira,Boothby's Blonde, Delikatasse...that's the list more or less.I transplanted some of my squash in the heat wave and lost some, but some held on! Portofino, Black Beauty, Gray, Cavelli, Casserta, Cocozelle, Yellow Crookneck, Lemon,can't remember what else.Eggplant is Hansel, Gretel, and Black Beauty.Still planning to plant some white eggplant seeds They love the heat so don't think I'm too late.What's everybody else doing? happy planting! Chai

Still not done planting! But the garden is just about full! I still have four baby Purple Haze F3s that were slow to germinate, and I definitely want to find room for them when they're a little bigger. Probably containers, or maybe I'll move one of the compost bins and plant them there. I'm also curious about some F2s I have, Momotaro and Russo Bruno, so I may have to find space for those, too.

I'm amazed that the pitiful plants I rescued at the plant exchange a month ago are thriving. When I got them, they were totally dry, falling out of their containers, with roots exposed. Now they're beautiful PL plants. If these plants could survive, I can imagine sending bareroot seedlings through the mail! (I used remy's excellent how-to photos to pack and send some perennial kale cuttings, so I now know how to pack plants.)

I also have some "leftovers" (too many extras that I kept for people who'd asked for plants) that I'm thinking about planting in 5 gallon containers, just because I haven't planted in containers. But first I have to research what to add to the coir I have to make a good planting mix.

I've planted my bean and cucumber and squash seedlings: La Vigneronne, Smeraldo, Musica, and Trionfo Violetto beans; Green Fingers, Armenian, Mediterranean Oasis, Lemon, and Chelsea Prize cucumbers; and Romanesco, Tondo di Nizza, Clarimore, Delicata, and baby Kabocha squash. The snails and slugs especially liked the Musica seedlings, so I may have to plant more, and I got poor germination on the lemon cukes, so I'll have to try again. I had to get these all in the ground before I could be tempted to use that space for more tomatoes!

Oh, and I also planted a few herb seeds -- basil, chervil, and chamomile -- but they're not in the ground yet. I also need to seed salad burnet and dill and (if it's not too late) cilantro. And I have 7 or 8 more echinaceas I need to plant, which I divided from a 6-pack I bought last fall (got 10-12 plants).

The peppers are all too small to plant out -- they're all from seeds, and the cold frame was not quite warm enough for them. Not sure if I'll get a harvest. These will eventually go into 1-gallon containers or in the flower beds.